Rhythm Over Schedule

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

In my post from a few days ago entitled NEW DIRECTIONS, NEXT STEPS, I used the phrase, “I have shifted from a life schedule to a life rhythm.”

I want to camp there for a few moments and explain what I think is the difference between a schedule and a rhythm


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I was taught the importance of writing and keeping a schedule almost twenty years ago. Since that time I have always kept a day planner and I set aside time weekly to create my schedule, to plan my calendar.

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This has been an important aspect of becoming effective in my roles as a human being. I will continue to plan a weekly agenda going forward. I need to do that so I don’t miss meetings because I was busy watching television!

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In spite of its importance I have learned that rhythm trumps schedule every time. I have learned I can make and keep a schedule and still lose my effectiveness if I do not consider and surrender to my created rhythm…hmmm. I think that’s a term that will need some explaining….I sense another post coming on this subject.

If I do not plan and practice my life rhythm, schedule takes over. Much of our world has fallen victim to this issue. As a result we have become a culture of racing activity junkies tied to calendars that other people have made for us.

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Three years ago I was there. I was living by my schedule, made for me by other people, without my life rhythm. I had lost my individuality, my divine spark and sadly much of my usefulness to the community I served. The sad thing was I was so busy, so tired, I didn’t realize it.

But God….

The last three years have been painful as God stripped away all my schedule (all the things I and others previously thought were important). The last year has been my full acceptance of my life rhythm and its practice.

Today I still keep a planner. It still holds all my meetings (though fewer they be and of a far different nature). But now my day planner intentionally displays my life rhythm. I follow that rhythm now as doggedly as I ever followed the schedule. The schedule serves the rhythm now…and that has made all the difference.

where do you stand in the process between schedule and rhythm?

Share Your World 1-4-21

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles, Uncategorized

I am starting off the New Year right by jumping onto SHARE YOUR WORLD early this week…year. I love this challenge and will continue participating in it throughout the year, as it gives me an opportunity to reveal more about myself and life here at The Vicarage…which is one of my goals for the New Year.

SYWCouple

So here are Melanie’s questions and my answers. When you have finished reading here please stop on over to Melanie’s blog, Sparks From A Combustible Mind, using the underlined link above, so that you can see what her other contributors have added to the conversation.

QUESTIONS: 

What’s a relationship deal breaker for you?

I guess it depends what kind of relationship we are talking about. I tend to let people in as far as they can be trusted; So how close you are allowed to get to me in the first place relies on your trustworthiness. How close I let you stay is also dependent on said trustworthiness. That said, I don’t tend to go from”zero to hero or hero to zero” in one step with people. Relationships with me are slow growing and slow fading.

Do you believe in extra-terrestrials?

Of course! I just call them angels and demons or maybe Nephilim and Anakim.

In the morning, do you hit the snooze button on your alarm (sometimes repeatedly) or do you leap out of bed, ready to face the day?

I am a deeply committed button pusher.

If you came back in the next life as an animal, which animal would you choose to be?  (and even if you don’t believe in that, let’s suspend belief for a moment just to have a little fun).

Oh! I played this on Facebook the other day. It said I was a dragon.

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GRATITUDE (Participation is always optional)

What do you plan to work on this year to make it better than last year  (personal goals, physically or mentally, or all three)?

I will give you a line from my blog...”You May Have Noticed.”

My goal this year is two-fold: Community and Stewardship. I intend to build community… and I intend to steward all my artistry towards kingdom provision.

Stewarding Artistry

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

I wrote this line yesterday. ” I intend to steward all my artistry towards kingdom provision.”

It came out of me, but I am not really sure I was the thought’s origin, because I am not sure I really know what it means.

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Does that ever happen to you?

As I have considered revamping Lillie-Put my main thought was about doing something to deepen my community outreach:

BY CREATING MORE CONVERSATIONAL PIECES.

BY BEING MORE FAITHFUL TO READ THE COMMUNITY’S WORK.

BY BEING MORE ENGAGED BY FAITHFULLY POSTING AND COMMENTING ACROSS MY MEDIA PLATFORMS.

BY ASKING BETTER QUESTIONS.

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But as I began to write that my heart knew that something was missing. In reaching inward I found the line.. I intend to steward all my artistry towards kingdom provision.

So what does it mean to steward my artistry towards kingdom provision?

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Here are some thoughts fresh of the presses of my brain. Stewarding artistry towards kingdom provision means:

GIVING ALL THE ART MORE SPACE IN MY LIFE.

GIVING ALL THE ART MORE TIME.

FOCUSING NOT ON QUANTITY BUT ON DEEPENING THE QUALITY OF MY CREATION

FINISHING THE WORK THROUGH THE POINT OF COMMUNITY RELEASE, AND BY THAT CREATING PROVISION FOR ME…FOR THE VICARAGE…FOR THE CHURCH…FOR THE KINGDOM.

Can you add to this list?

…You May Have Noticed.

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

You may have noticed a slight change in Lillie-Put’s content in the New Year.

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Posts with a few more words…fewer of what I call one minute wonders…. fewer posts over all. It is intentional and those of you who know me know I am becoming all about intention.

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My goal this year is two-fold: Community and Stewardship. I intend to build community… and I intend to steward all my artistry towards kingdom provision.

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To do both of these things: I need to deepen the conversational nature of the blog; I need to focus on artistry and I need to be reading more of your blogs.

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In order to accomplish this I will be approaching the blog more as an open journal, a chat room and a photography/ sketch book. I will still be joining challenges, just fewer than I use to. I will also be increasing the time I spend reading your material and chatting with you about it. Above all and the goal will always be creating community and creating kingdom provision. That might be part of a new tag line…Creating community and Kingdom provision…Yeah I like that!

2021 Home Photo Challenge 1-3-21

Posted on by under Photography, Uncategorized

The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it.

IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN..JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.

The root bark of our blue spruce in the back yard. Sadly this tree will have to come down this year as this is the best looking part of the tree.

THE RIVERS OF TIME

HAVE CRACKED THE SURFACE LAYERS.

PASSAGES MARK YEARS.

On Oz Being Two-Tired

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

My granddaughter, ‘Lella, calls me Oz. This is Oz’s house.

I guess to a two-year-old it could look like The Emerald City.

‘Lella has been with us all this week and will be with us into next week while her mother and father await the birth of “Lella’s sister, Yve. We are having a blast!

I come to the end of every day feeling accomplished and entirely ready for bed. I think all of us at The Vicarage would say the same. We are not too tired to go on. We have established a very relaxed and manageable rhythm after all. But we are “two-tired” for sure.

The last time I held the energy of a two-year-old for more than an afternoon, I was in my twenties and I weighed eighty pounds less than I do now. If nothing else being two-tired has reaffirmed that I will be losing this weight, because soon I will have two granddaughters to be chasing after!

2021 Home Photo Challenge 1-2-21

Posted on by under Photography, Uncategorized

The Home Photo Challenge was fun for me last year. Since I do not think much is going to be changing for me in the way of travel this year, I am going to continue the challenge for myself into 2021. This year I am going to add a little twist. I will give a brief description of each photo I take and write a Haiku to go along with it.

IF YOU WANT TO JOIN IN THE FUN..JUST TAKE A PHOTO IN OR AROUND YOUR HOME AND WRITE YOUR OWN BLOG AND POST THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW IT.

My granddaughter Daniella loves our Christmas tree

In the Christmas lights

A little girl far from home

Finds the hope she needs.

New Directions, Next Steps.

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

At this time last year I was preparing to visit the Philippines for my son’s wedding.

I had also just embarked on a massive lifestyle change, the seeds of which had been planted in November of 2018. Way back then the Lord had spoken to me about embracing a lifestyle of faith with my finances that would involve me giving up my salary from the church. I did this in November of 2019 and received my final check from the church on Dec. 31st 2019.

I still work for the church as a pastor and as a volunteer.

One of the things the Lord told me in January was that this move to a lifestyle of faith was about a personal shift which was going to take a year to complete. I was launching on a journey. I had the method of travel. I just didn’t know where the walk of faith would lead me.

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Here I am one year later and my life has totally changed. I have shifted from a life schedule to a life rhythm. My prayer life has deepened and changed from intercessor to watchman on the wall. I have finished my book. I have learned much more about my office in the church as a prophet. My leadership style flows chiefly from prayer (rather than from a church schedule) and manifests more as a caretaker than as a facilitator.

As 2021 dawns I am posed to take the next steps of this journey: Next steps in ministry; Next steps in publishing my book; Next steps in being the co-owner of the Vicarage; The next steps in my family; The next steps financially.

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I don’t know what all of those steps are yet, but I do know they will take me in new directions. I have tried to follow the threads prophetically so I can see my future but they vanish a bit up the road into a bank of fog God has created to keep me on the pathway of slow constant intentional living by faith in the day to day.

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Here are the things I know: The world is not done with its troubles just because it is 2021; America is in the cross-hairs; Prosperity is still possible; Faith is more necessary in the days ahead than in the days past; It is time to operate in my God-given authority; God has equipped me with what I need for the road ahead; I need to focus on the step I see not the ones I don’t; It is time to write; It is time to publish; People are more important than programs.

New directions, Next steps. Anything could happen and probably will. Isn’t that exciting?